A requirement for contact pins of a wide variety of electrical connectors is a high degree of flexibility. For example, so-called "right angle headers" require contact pins to have a ninety degree bend in order to interface a female output connector to a printed circuit board (PCB). Such contact pin flexibility gives rise, however, to difficulties in aligning the PCB connection ends of the contact pins with a pattern of PCB plated-through holes for connection of the header to traces on the PCB.
The art has extensively addressed the difficulty with various forms of alignment apparatus securable either to a connector or to a PCB, such as are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,651,444, 4,721,472 and 5,133,670. A quite simple alignment apparatus is shown in IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 31, No. 5, October 1988, pp. 122-124, wherein alignment apparatus for mounting on a PCB comprises a flat, elongate electrically insulative body with a plurality of contact alignment passages therethrough and snap-in projections extending from the body undersurface to secure the same to a PCB.